UK-trio TRAAMS’ debut full-length, Grin is out today on FatCat. Grin is the follow-up the recently released  Ladders EP and was recorded throughout 2012 and 2013 with producers Rory Atwell and MJ from Hookworms, the aptly-titled Grin is eleven tracks of pure distorted joy. The album successfully captures the raw energy of TRAAMS’ frenzied and sweaty live performances, as witnessed supporting bands like Parquet Courts, Fildar, Hooded Fang, Dope Body and many others.

Grin is available now at the FatCat online store. The band is also streaming their single “Foxes”, which is available above.

TRAAMS formed in summer 2011 in Chichester, West Sussex after meeting at a club night that vocalist and guitarist Stu Hopkins started as a reaction to the city’s limited nightlife. The only options previously available to him and his friends were “boring clubs and bars which only played boring club music.” At his club night Hopkins would mainly play records by Wire, New Order and Le Tigre, supplemented with mainstream pop and hip-hop. Similarly, there is a pop immediacy coexisting with an expansive, experimental element inside the music they make themselves. Incorporating the two sides are vital when writing a TRAAMS song, as Hopkins elaborates; “we really want to push both those areas as far as we can. We like seeing people dance and having fun but we also want to be noisy and aggressive. It’s fun trying to strike a balance and seeing how far we can push it.” The band claim Mclusky, Abe Vigoda, Pavement, Television, and Women as influences. Hopkins specifically cites Stephen Malkmus, Iggy Pop, and Tom Verlaine as songwriters he admires because they all make what he calls “skewed pop”, a term that fits TRAAMS’ sound snuggly.